18

JED

I’d been with the FBI for almost twenty years. I’d seen everything. Handled the stress. Coped with danger. Been shot at. I’d dealt with it all without breaking a sweat.

But North saying my name in that scared voice the day before through the phone had taken years off my life.

For the first time ever, I had a liability. A weakness. I loved someone enough that if they were being harmed or threatened that it made me lose my shit.

I’d loved my parents. I was getting close with my brother and his family again. I would not see harm come to them.

North Wainright though… she was my Achilles heel. My heart. A part of me. That was why I’d resigned from the FBI. I couldn’t be away from her. The need to protect was too great. It would be impossible to go off on a mission now. I’d have to come to terms with letting her leave my sight, let alone this house. She was independent as fuck and smothering her wasn’t going to work. Or handcuffing her to my bed. Although I did remember the perks of that, ones she’d enjoyed immensely.

Putting her in the same room with a man who might possibly be an attempted murderer and other things made me panic. I tried not to lose my shit. When South and West looked my way, they understood.

They’d underestimated North and what she was capable of. Of what she’d done for them. They wouldn’t now. Neither would I. We’d worked on the plan. Ensured she was protected.

When Julian pulled up, South met him at the door and pointed him to us in Macon’s office with all the fucking animal heads on the walls. Where this all began.

I’d met Julian briefly the other day in North’s office. I pegged him at twenty-five and just under six feet. If he exercised, it was lifting a hair dryer. He was in dress pants, crisp white button-up shirt and tie. Like North when she was dressed for work, he would fit in better in a big city than Montana. He had more product in his dark hair that most women and I’d wager his nails were manicured. I didn’t have great gaydar, but it was pretty obvious he batted for the other team. The one thing he wasn’t doing was lusting after North.

His steps faltered when he saw me, but with North as his boss, he couldn’t ruffle easily. Eddie followed him in, dropped on the floor at my feet.

North stood from behind the desk. The hard surface where I’d spread her wide and eaten her out. My dick got hard remembering, which was an inconvenience.